ANECDOTES OF WARHORSES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1778, 19 December 1885, Page 26

ANECDOTES OF WARHORSES.

If a horse loses its master in battle it does not forget the regiment to which it formerly belonged, and often naturally returns to it at the first opportunity. . During the war between the Tyrolese and Bavarians, fifteen military horses belonging to the Bavarian troops were taken prisoners by the Tyrolese, who mounted them with their own men and sent them forth into battle. But no sooner did they come within sight of the Bavarian troops and recognise their uniform, than despite the infuriated struggles of their Tyrolese riders to the contrary, they carried them bravely within the Bavarian-lines, and delivered them up as prisoners of war.

Horses once subjected to military discipline, aud accustomed to the evolutions of war, should their occupation subsequently become peaceful, even after years of patient toil and drudgery on the country roadside, or in the streets of the city, still retain a vivid recollection of their army life, and its lessons.

Professor Youatt, in his excellent and wellknown work on " The House," gives us the following account of an old military horse named Solus. This animal was employed in carrying backward and forward a clerk who was engaged as superintendent of the works on a new turnpike road in course of construction. He had to see that all the men engaged were at work, and that they did their work properly. One day Solus was engaged, as usual, in carrying his master, when his attention was attracteciby the unusual sound of a military trumpet-call and the roll of a drum, which proceeded from a company of volunteers who were drilling on the adjacent common. In a moment all the military ardour of old Solus was called into energetic action, and, leaping the fences, he galloped towards the common, placing himself at the head of the company, as if he carried on his back, not the clerk, but the commanding officer; nor could the utmost efforts of the clerk get him off .the ground until the volunteers themselves left the field and recommenced their march homeward. Then, placing himself at their head, he carried the clerk back into town, prancing in true military style, as cleverly as his stiff old legs would allow him, to the great amusement of the volunteers and the spectators, and the no small annoyance of the clerk, who certainly could not appreciate the high honour conferred upon him by Solus iv placing him in such an exalbed and ridiculous position, and making him the colonel of* the company agaiust his will.

A Methodist travelling preacher, commencing his labours in his new circuit, was mounted for the first time upon the circuit horse. The animal, unknown to him, had been formerly a soldier's horse. He had to pass over a road which was undergoing repairs, aud through the midst of labourers who knew the horse. They suspected that, as he was the new preacher, he was probably ignorant of his character. Perceiving him riding leisurely towards them, thinking, no doubt, on peaceful, not warlike themes, they immediately ceased work, and stationing themselves on the side of the turnpike, one of them shouted " Charge !" and away went the horse at a gallop up the road,' as if charging the enemy, the preacher nearly over the tail of the gallant animal, and reining in most lustily. When another of the men shouted '• Halt !" the horse in a moment stopped in the midst of the road, as if he had grown to the spot, the preacher this thne nearly over his head.